At least 41 organizations have signed a statement denouncing both the Marcos Jr. and Duterte regimes for pursuing the same bloody policies of the Marcos Sr. martial law dictatorship and called on the Filipino people to hold both of them accountable.
Issued in the name of the September 21 Committee, the statement said “we mark this year’s anniversary of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s declaration of martial law with continued outrage over the persistent violations of human rights (HR), civil liberties and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) under the current regime of his son Ferdinand Marcos Jr.”
The committee held the unlamented Rodrigo Duterte regime responsible for the restoration of Marcos rule as it openly coddled Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and eased his way to Malacanang by organizing Team Unity, which was supposed to be a political duopoly by the worst political dynasties in the country. “We not only see martial law-era programs and policies rehashed, such as Masagana 99, the nutribun, the Bagong Lipunan hymn. Worse, we see how impunity persists with deplorable human rights violations— especially enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and indiscriminate bombings and hamletting of communities— attributable to military, paramilitary, police and shadowy death squads,” the Sept. 21 Committee argued.
From July 2022 to June 2024, a total of 105 extrajudicial killings (EJKs) were committed under the Marcos Jr. administration, there were 75 frustrated EJKs, at least 15 enforced disappearances, 145 illegal arrests and detentions, 42,426 people were evacuated, 44,604 Filipinos suffered from bombings while 63,379 complained about indiscriminate bombings. To compound the human situation, 3,419,044 citizens were subjected to threats, harassment and intimidation in 23 months. Even the MTRCB slapped an “X” rating on “Alipato at Muog,” a documentary on the enforced disappearance of activist Jonas Burgos, before reclassifying it as R-16 upon appeal.
“We likewise decry the continued weaponization of the law through trumped-up criminal charges leading to unjust and indefinite imprisonment; dehumanization of illegal drugs users and small-time peddlers as crazed dregs of society; the vilification of critics, dissenters, human rights defenders, social activists, and development workers through red-tagging; demonization of revolutionaries as “terrorists” thus blocking the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations as a means of addressing the roots of armed conflict; the use of ‘tokhang’ tactics to instill fear, harass and cow urban communities to submission; and suppressing access to information and using censorship to cover-up of violations of HR and IHL,” the committee stressed.
Indeed, impunity persists, with the complicity of the political and economic elite backed by the US government, through the operations of well-funded fascist creations like the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) in tandem with the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL), which is of dubious constitutionality. Bloated bloated military and police budgets have been utilized to thwart the people’s quest for democracy, social justice, human rights and peace just as it was during martial law.
“We call on our people to resist this state of repression. Let us exercise the full range of our rights and freedoms as guaranteed under the Constitution and various international covenants. Let us demand an end to tyranny and state terror.
Let us demand accountability first of all from Marcos Jr. for upholding his father’s fascist legacy while deceptively posing as an advocate of human rights on the international stage. Marcos Jr. should abolish Duterte’s notorious and blood-soaked NTF-ELCAC and provide assistance to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its effort to prosecute Duterte for his crimes,” the Sept. 21 Committee stressed.
“Second, we demand accountability from Rodrigo Duterte and his accomplices for causing the deaths of tens of thousands in his fake drug war; for grievous violations of HR and IHL unleashed in the name of counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism; for the passage of the ATL; for establishing the corrupt and abusive NTF-ELCAC; and for sabotaging and scuttling the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. Most of all, the Dutertes should be held accountable for paving the way for the Marcos restoration.
It has been 52 years since that fateful day of September 21, 1972. Yet the struggle for justice and democracy is as urgent as ever. Tuloy ang laban!” the committee concluded.
